Saturday, June 14, 2008

Father's Day

I have lots of fathers in my life today (my birth father died four years ago). Five of my seven children and two sons-in-law are fathers of my 20 (almost 21) grandchildren. It is a joy to be able to say that every one of them are excellent fathers. Brad has the special challenge of being a single father with physical custody of his two youngest children. He writes a blog on being a single father, and I don't think I'm just being a mother when I say it is excellent. I have included his essay of multi-tasking here. For more, goto: http://strainge.blogspot.com/

Today I feel the need to post another single parenting topic. That of multi-tasking! You've probably heard the saying that "Parenting is a two person job". No it's NOT...parenting is a six person job with lousy pay! So when tackling this project as a single parent, you're only option is multi-tasking!

I've spoken to many parents and we all agree that laundry is one of the all-time most frustrating tasks. Laundry has a mind of its own. Even as I type this I've got a load of laundry in the dryer and another in the washer. I have three kids in this household and one adult with a very limited wardrobe...and yet the laundry keeps coming!!!

But let's face it...as Bill Cosby so accurately put it "Kid's have brain damage!" Case in point: Clean clothes show up in the dirty clothes hamper! Huh? How does that happen? I've observed this phenomenon in action and the only explanation is "Brain Damage". I've watched my son go to pick out a shirt for the day. He grabs one off the shelf and two more fall to the floor. Then I tell him that it's time to clean his room and he picks up those two "clean" shirts and throws them in the dirty clothes hamper! Arggghhh!!!

You might be thinking to yourself...just let the kids do the laundry. We actually have that system in place. Our chore wheel gives each child the opportunity to do the laundry for a week. But you don't really think that happens without supervision from Dad? There have been times when I've had to be somewhere else and the laundry was done without my supervision. And of course I come home to wet laundry in the washer that needs to be re-washed because it has been sitting there all day and is starting to smell or wrinkled clothes in the dryer that needs to be re-washed or ironed.

And laundry is just one of the many tasks that need to be performed simultaneously. There's the dishes which show up about every 15 minutes with hungry kids grazing all day. There's grocery shopping and "What's for dinner?" There's yardwork! There's "Dad's Taxi Service" which is on call 24 hours for trips to music lessons, gymnastics, sports practices, as well as the other necessities of life like the dentist, orthodontist, haircuts, etc. And of course the unexpected tasks; "Dad kitty just coughed up a hair ball" "Dad there's a spider in my room" "Dad I spilt my milk all over my dress and I don't have anything else to wear" "How could you not have anything to wear...I just finished three loads of laundry!!!"

What great timing...as soon as I typed that last sentence my daughter came up to me and said "Dad, could you help me find something to wear? I can't find any clean clothes in my room." HA!!! I guess it's back to multi-tasking! My daughter also just said "Oh Dad...just a reminder that today is the day to go pick out fireworks for the 4th of July!" I'll add that to the list!!!P.S. - "Dad...can you help me with my hair?" "I'll be right there sweetie...as soon as I finish this blog post!"